Rolling R&B Thread 2017

new cassie with (blech) g-eazy

https://open.spotify.com/track/4VwX2Ycso2PjDvQA9FbfBp

love the title line and the production is beautiful

g-eazy unsurprisingly offers nothing but the reminder that the industry sees guest raps as little more than signposts for radio programmers. unfortunately for some reason there probably won't be a maroon 5-esque 'without rap' edit for the ac stations cuz otherwise i'd be seeking it out.

there might be! adult r&b is a growing format

A solo version of that track was originally intended for release so hopefully we get it eventually, the random rapper addition must've happened pretty recently before they premiered it. Like I said in her thread it's smooth and I'm enjoying it a lot but I just hope she doesn't disappear again after this.

worth reposting here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-cNN_SPqL0

maybe i'm wrong but i feel like there's been a major uptick in adult r&b radio stars singing over trap-ish beats this year. not that trend-hopping hits are necessarily good, but if it means more room for male vocalists who don't have thin chris brown-type voices then i can't say i'm opposed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRF9TgkBCjc

(my favorite thing about this one is that the way he sings "fuck" sounds appropriately mid-coital)

Thraed of Iconika

^^^good shit

new luke jaaaaaames

http://youtu.be/zYL3HPMiOho

i was so worried he'd given up music for acting. i love this

yeah song is a jam

great song & video

so good

agreed

Love this new Jean Deaux track

http://soundcloud.com/thatsjeandeaux/wikipedia

new syd: https://soundcloud.com/internetsyd/bad-dream-no-looking-back

pretty sure 'Fin' is gonna end up being a best of the year album for me

this is pretty good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3GKxnBDu2g

also i need to listen to that syd record

it flags a bit in the middle but is otherwise aces

Syd solo i don't care for as much as the internet stuff

daniel caesar is v v good

Daniel Caesar's album is so good!

Really floored by the new Elijah Blake album. Feels like a more youthful spin on Anthony Hamilton's act—same virtuosic grasp of multiple styles and eras of R&B, but with more of a '90s spirit. A bunch of tracks sprawl in some Maxwell-esque directions, too... wonderful stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATDKax9H0LA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfQYxNVFstI

and yeah that Daniel Caesar album is sensational. What a week

Caesar album is indeed great.

playing new york in november - http://highlineballroom.com/show/2017/11/24/daniel-caesar/

On Under the Streetlight, Boyz II Men put their spin on classics such as "Why Do Fools Fall in Love," (Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers), "Stay" (Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs) and "I Only Have Eyes for You" (The Flamingos) along with an original composition, "Ladies Man."

The album also features three guest vocalists who join the trio: Multi-platinum R&B artist Brian McKnight on "I'll Come Running Back To You," "Tears On My Pillow," and "A Sunday Kind Of Love"; Olivier Award Winner Amber Riley (Glee, London's Dreamgirls) on "Anyone Who Knows What Love Is"; and ten-time Grammy® winners Take Six join the trio on "A Thousand Miles Away."

also there's a new syd record out friday?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Always_Never_Home

nice!

enjoyed the Caesar album so much that i went back and tried his 2015 debut Pilgrim's Paradise and hooboy he's gotten much better over the past few years.

These dudes are playing here tomorrow:

http://soundcloud.com/sonder/sets/into-ep-1

the r.lum.r single posted upthread five months ago left me cold when first posted but it is kind of a revelation on the radio

i like the new musiq soulchild album. it's a double album. marsha ambrosius and neil degrasse tyson are among the guests.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfN58r9zBGE

Also, new Ledisi album out Friday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CNH-VuD7vw

havent listened to enough r&b this year but rexx life raj has released some stuff i like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEMY1ZPaH-I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCWsvpg7c00
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUd5wOsV9JE

I don't know if any of you watch the super soapy EMPIRE spinoff STAR, but Luke James is on this season and he's releasing jams. I really like this duet with him and Ryan Destiny, one of the main stars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zS_N_UDLRw

There's this one, too, which is a little current-trendy but I like it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgWex3znZRk

The cast of this show is kind of bonkers. Queen Latifah and Benjamin Bratt are in the main cast; Michael Michele has a running gig; Paris Jackson showed up (and got throttled by the main bad-girl singer this week); Naomi Campbell and Lenny Kravitz play Ryan Destiny's character's parents; Keke Palmer plays a Nicki/Cardi hybrid; and Stephen Dorff is on it too.

brent faiyaz sonder son is my r&b aoty

i only know him from the goldlink hit he sings on, didn't realize he had any albums. pretty impressed on first listen!

Is there any good reason why we're not talking about the new Ty Dolla album? If you cut the Pharrell and Skrillex tracks it's all pretty great imo.

i haven't listened yet!

i like the jordan bratton mixtape that came out last week, especially this song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGNUa3rkMqQ

and curtis harding's new one, which is more old school (produced by danger mouse)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahyM6VAM5cI

i like the skrillex track tbh, adds to the ~vibes~

would dump the pharrrell for sure

but yeah great album IMO

Think this Daniel Caesar album will have any end of year traction? Went from sounding like a Really Good R&B Album to me to feeling like something we might be talking about a decade from now.

i agree. prior album has not much of anything going for it tho'.

I know you can lazily plop this narrative onto a lot of albums this year, but Freudian really feels like healing music at a time when we can all use it. Listening to it just now in the wake of Manhattan and it's like, yes, I didn't realize how much I needed this kind of comfort in my life right now.

luv this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRXlNke8NaM

this rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qk6dN_92i58

^^^^ enthusiastically seconded

the ty tape is great except for the pharrell song which is dogshit

the melody on that one is so off-putting.

I kinda like the Pharrell track? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯